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Princess Peach's initial appearance was drawn by Shigeru Miyamoto. Miyamoto later asked Yōichi Kotabe to redraw Peach with his instructions. He had asked Kotabe to draw her eyes to be "a little cat-like".[1] With Kotabe's influence, Princess Peach changed considerably throughout her gaming system.[1] Peach was not a playable character in New Super Mario Bros. Wii because a satisfactory mechanism to use her dress was not found,[2] however, she is the main protagonist in Super Princess Peach and is a playable character in most Mario spin-offs such as Mario Party, Mario Kart, and also sports games.

Princess Peach has long, flowing blonde hair (except in Super Mario Bros. 2, in which she has brown hair), blue eyes, tall frame, an hourglass figure, and a rosy complexion. She generally wears a pink evening gown with frilly trimmings, short puffy sleeves, and a pannier-style overskirt. Her accessories are red high heels, white evening gloves, a cyan brooch, cyan earrings, and a gold crown adorned with cyan jewels and red jewels. Her hair is sometimes pulled back into a ponytail, first in Super Mario Sunshine and later in the Mario Kart and Mario Sports games beginning with Mario Kart: Double Dash!! and Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour respectively.

In sports games, she wears pink athletic clothing, ranging from shorts and a T-shirt to a set of armour to motorcycle leathers. She also wears a different version of her evening gown in Super Mario Sunshine.

In Japan, the Princess's name has always been
Peach (ピーチ姫,Pīchi-Hime, Princess Peach) since her debut in the original Super Mario Bros. (1985), but she would go on to be renamed Toadstool in the English language manual. The English version of Yoshi's Safari (1993) marked the first usage of the name "Peach" in the Western world, although she would go back to being named "Toadstool" in Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3 (1994). In Super Mario 64 (1996), she uses both names in a letter addressed to Mario, with "Peach" being used for her signature. From Mario Kart 64 (1996) and onward, the name Peach was kept unchanged for the English version of games in the franchise.

Peach's personality is generally sweet and well mannered. In most games she is portrayed as selfless, perky and generous. Typically, she does not show an aggressive nature even when she is fighting (this is done by quick slaps, elegant high kicks, thrusts in the air, and other graceful fighting techniques, as seen in the Super Smash Bros.series) or confronting her enemies. This, however, varies slightly from game to game. One of Peach's most common traits during her playable appearances is her ability to temporarily float in the air with her large skirt, and later on, with her parasol.

This was first featured during Peach's first playable appearance in Super Mario Bros. 2. This ability has also appeared in Super Paper Mario and her playable appearances in the Super Smash Bros. series. However, in Super Princess Peach, she shows wild mood swings from joy, gloom, calm, and rage, each of which give her a special ability. These changes in emotion are most likely attributed to the "strange powers" of Vibe Island mentioned in the game's booklet. In Super Princess Peach, she shows Bowser that she is capable of defending herself.

Although often kidnapped by him, Peach is willing to have Bowser team up with her and the Mario Bros. when a bigger evil threatens the Mushroom Kingdom. The Paper Mario series reveals that she can sometimes show a more bratty behavior, which dissipates after a short time. Apart from Mario, who is her main love interest, she has occasionally shown a very friendly behavior towards Luigi.

Baby Peach, the infant form of Princess Peach is also voiced by Mills in Mario and Luigi: Partners in Time and Yoshi's Island DS, but starting with Mario Kart Wii, Baby Peach is voiced by Samantha Kelly.

Peach is portrayed as the princess of the Mushroom Kingdom, where she was born and currently resides. Within her castle are Royal Guards known as mushroom retainers. In Super Mario RPG and Paper Mario, a cabinet minister or chancellor is part of the Mushroom Kingdom government. Her father, the Mushroom King, though mentioned in the instruction manual to Super Mario Bros.,[3] has never made an appearance in the mainstream games. She also has a grandmother who is a Toad and a grandmother who is a human, implying that she may be part-Toad.

Peach first appeared in Super Mario Bros. where she has been kidnapped by the series' main antagonist, Bowser, many times since. (In at least one game, Toadsworth remarks that she is kidnapped, on average, every week.) In Super Mario Bros. 2, she was a playable character. She, along with Mario, Luigi and Toad were summoned by the inhabitants of Subcon to save their dream land from the evil Wart. Peach's main ability was that she could hover for a limited time after jumping left or right. This skill allows her to easily make jumps over areas larger than other characters could. In Super Mario Bros. 3, the Koopalings use their magic wands to turn the Mushroom Kings into various animals. Hearing of this, Princess Peach asks Mario and Luigi to grab the wands back in order for the Mushroom Kings to be changed back into their true forms, all while sending them items while they were on their quest and providing them with power-ups after completing each level. She is eventually captured herself and later saved by Mario. In Super Mario World, she, Mario and Luigi were having a vacation in Dinosaur Land when Bowser once again kidnapped her.

In Super Mario RPG, Peach, as Princess Toadstool, was one of Mario's party members, along with Mallow, Geno and Bowser. Princess Peach's abilities are similar to Mallow's in which she relies heavily on skill usage, but her skills are more support-based than Mallow's. Her main weapons in the game are gloves, which she uses to slap enemies, or household items like a parasol or frying pan that she uses to smack foes with. She is slightly quicker than Mario in this game, though. In Super Mario 64, Peach invited Mario to her castle for a cake, but before Mario arrived at the palace, Bowser came and took control of the Power Stars. He trapped Peach in the stained-glass window over the entrance of the castle. In Paper Mario, Peach invites Mario to her castle, but as soon as he meets with her, Bowser lifts her castle into the sky and throws Mario out a window. She is a playable character in the scenes after Mario has rescued each of the seven Star Spirits. In Super Mario Sunshine, Mario, Peach, Toadsworth and an entourage of Toads went to Isle Delfino on Peach's private plane. However, Bowser Jr., in the disguise of Shadow Mario, had filled the island with graffiti. He then kidnapped Peach, claiming her to be his mother. Princess Peach was taken once again in New Super Mario Bros. In Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time and Yoshi's Island DS, Baby Peach (her infant form) makes appearances.

Super Princess Peach marked the second time that Princess Peach was cast as the main heroine in a video game. In a role-reversal, Princess Peach had to save Mario, Luigi, and Toad from King Bowser. She has a talking parasol named Perry who transformed from a real boy and can be used as her weapon. In Super Paper Mario, Peach is hypnotized by Nastasia into marrying Bowser, in order to unleash the destructive Chaos Heart. Count Bleck was the one who wed Peach and Bowser, but since he was not authorized to perform the act of marriage, the marriage itself was unofficial (however, Bowser continued to believe in his marriage to Peach). Peach is later rescued by Mario and manages to convince Bowser to join their cause in stopping Bleck. In Super Mario Galaxy, Peach's castle was lifted into space by Bowser, who wanted Peach to rule the universe by his side. She was brought into Outer Space, along with Toads, and Mario had to go through different galaxies to save her. In New Super Mario Bros. Wii, Peach is kidnapped on her birthday by Bowser Jr. and the Koopalings. She is later rescued by Mario, Luigi, Blue Toad, and Yellow Toad. She is also in Super Mario Galaxy 2 when Bowser kidnaps her and puts her in the center of the universe. Mario and Peach then get the final Grand Star, before the Comet Observatory from the first Super Mario Galaxy shows up, and Rosalina is heard thanking Mario for watching over the Luma that he had found. The Luma returns to the Comet Observatory, taking Mario's cap with him, before the Comet Observatory transforms into a starship and leaves. Eventually, Mario and his companions return to the Mushroom Kingdom, where a large cake stands in front of Peach's Castle and Starship Mario sits in the sky above. Princess Peach also has appearances in New Super Mario Bros. 2 as well as New Super Mario Bros. U. She appears in Super Mario 3D World as a playable character who can float temporarily in midair; however she is the second-slowest of the five playable characters, with only Rosalina having a slower running speed.

Princess Peach has appeared in nearly all of the Mario spin-off titles. Since the first Mario Party, Peach has appeared in every single installment.

In the Mario Kart series (except Super Mario Kart, Mario Kart 64 and Mario Kart: Super Circuit because she is in the light category), she is in the medium category of characters with the fastest acceleration, the lowest top speed, and the best off-road ability to take the shortcuts on each course. Her special item in Mario Kart: Double Dash involves 2 hearts temporarily rotating around her kart, giving her whatever item they collide into. She shares her special with Daisy, her best friend. Mario Kart 8 introduces Pink Gold Peach, a metallic version of Peach similar to Metal Mario.

In the Mario Tennis and Mario Golf series, she is labeled as a "Technique" character and has one of the lightest hits. She is a captain in the games Mario Superstar Baseball, and Mario Super Sluggers and specializes in pitching. She is a playable character in Super Mario Strikers and its sequel, Mario Strikers Charged. Peach is fast, agile, and has good passing skills. Finally, she appears in the first Mario basketball game, Mario Hoops 3-on-3, for the Nintendo DS, and is a technical type (good at taking shots). She appears in the crossover sports game, Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games, where she is a skill type character. She also appeared in Mario Sports Mix in 2011, where she is a playable character.

Peach also makes appearances in Super Mario Maker. A Peach costume can be unlocked and worn through a Mystery Mushroom, and Peach makes cameos in the 10-Mario challenge and the 100-Mario challenge, being kidnapped by two Goombas. After the completion of the 100-Mario challenge on normal or higher difficulties, Mario rescues Peach at the end.

In the Super Smash Bros. series, Peach first appears in Super Smash Bros. Melee, the second game of the series. She has the unique ability to float for seconds, much as she can in Super Mario Bros. 2, an advantage which is balanced by the fact that she is one of the lighter fighters and in Super Smash Bros. Brawl her killing ability has been decreased since Super Smash Bros. Melee and making kills in Brawl can prove to be quite difficult. However, Peach's float is one of the main elements of her game, as it allows her to combo players from above and dodge horizontal attacks. It serves as an amazing horizontal recovery. Her attacks include the Peach Bomber (where she leaps forward, twirls and rams her rear into her opponent which causes an explosion); her forward throw (a massive slap that kills players at higher percentages); her parasol; using Toad as a human shield; using golf clubs, tennis rackets, and frying pans as melee weapons; and pulling turnips from the ground. Her Final Smash in Brawl is unique in that it does not kill opponents outright. Instead, it puts them to sleep and spawns peaches across the battlefield that restore Peach's health. Additionally, in the Subspace Emissary story mode, Princess Peach is a very prominent character, being present throughout most of the storyline. Peach has returned in the recent installments released for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U.[4]

In the cartoon series by DiC, she is always referred to as Princess Toadstool, since the name Peach had not been used in the western world until Yoshi's Safari in 1993, and she had red hair instead of yellow. (This may have been due to the original NES games from her early appearances depicting her with red hair, due to technical limitations). Unlike in the video games, she is occasionally seen using power-ups such as the Tanooki Leaf. She is voiced by Jeannie Elias in The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! and Tracey Moore in the two follow up series, The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario World.

GameDaily described Princess Peach as an “ideal woman that's as sweet as can be” in their list of "babes that should or shouldn’t meet your mom".[8] The website ranked her forty-eighth in their list of Top 50 Hottest Game Babes claiming that she is “the quiet 'quick, come and rescue me' type, but in Mario Strikers Charged she's all action with a hot sports outfit and shows the boys who's boss”.[7]IGN editor, Matt Casamassina, stated that Nintendo would be "taken aback" by her outfit, which he describes as more revealing than any outfit she's ever worn.[9] IGN rated the character an 8 out of 10 in the worth-saving index on their article “Mario’s Ladies: The Princesses of Mario Galaxy”.[10]The New York Times claimed that Princess Peach had "grit as well as grace" and that her "peachiness did nothing to upset the apple cart of expectation: she may have been athletic, smart and strong, but she was also adorable." The article claimed that Peach was what "once-unisex, postfeminist parents are shooting for."[11] Manolith listed Princess Peach as one of the characters on their "25 Hottest Female Videogame Protagonists" list, especially citing her Strikers outfit.[12] S. Williams of Momzone magazine declared Peach "gaming's lone female role model," citing the character's unceasing humility and gutsy charm.[citation needed]

UGO ranked Peach ninth on their list of the "Top 11 Girls of Gaming".[13]

In a poll conducted by the Official Nintendo Magazine, Princess Peach was voted by readers as the second greatest female character; the magazine stated that "some might view her as being a bit useless but we'll let her off as rescuing her is always so much fun".[14] Peach was included on GameDaily's list of hottest blondes in video games; they cited her appearances in sports games such as Super Mario Strikers and SSX On Tour (in Mario Smash Football, she wears a pink midriff-baring crop top with pink shorts).[15] They listed the "damsel in distress" as one of their top 25 video game archetypes, using Princess Peach as an example of this due to her frequent kidnappings.[16] Despite this, however, Peach only managed a 'D' on Destructoid's Gamer's Red Carpet, who called her pink dress "awful", as opposed to Princess Daisy which got a B+ and Rosalina which got an 'A+'.[17] IGN called Peach "all smiles and politeness"; however, they also labelled her as the one of the weirdest Mario characters, citing her constant kidnappings.[18] IGN later stated that "when she's not staring blankly at nothing, she can be rather adorable", however the fact that "Mario can heroically collect 120 Power Stars all while saving Peach's kingdom and still get nothing but a cake in return makes us think this might be something of a one-sided relationship."[19]

In 2007, Princess Peach landed on Forbes magazine's Wealthiest Fictional People list, with a fortune of approximately $1.3 billion.[20] She is ranked 10th in Electronic Gaming Monthly's Top Ten Video Game Politicians list.[21] In 2015, WatchMojo.com ranked her #1 on their "Top 10 Video Game Damsels in Distress" list.